In the gallery: Reggiane Re.2002 Ariete II | Italeri 1:48

Yes, it’s been a while since my last post – but it doesn’t mean that nothing has been done. Finally got the Reggiane completed.

The Reggiane Re.2002 Ariete II (eng: Ram) was a ground attack aircraft developed from the Re.2001 fighter, The most obvious difference between the two aircraft was the engine. While the Re.2001 used an inline licence-built Daimler Benz DB 601 engine, the Re.2002 used Re.2000 fuselage adopted to the Piaggio P.XIX RC. 45 Turbine-B radial engine, with Re.2001 wings attached – a truly good mix, thanks to which Re.2002 could reach a top speed of 329mph, only ten mph slower than the Re.2001. The Re.2002 was armed with four machine guns (two 12.7mm and two 7.7mm), but most of all, it had the capacity to carry one 650kg (1,422lb) bomb under the fuselage and two 160kg (352.7lb) bomb under wings. Thanks to that, Re.2002 was a good replacement for Ju-87s and other less effective dive-bombers of RA, while maintaining its fighter abilities.

Reggiane received orders for 500 Re.2002s , however only around 225 were actually manufactured of which not all reached the frontline RA service in 1942, also due to Allied air raids which destroyed the Reggiane facilities and some of the completed airframes. After the Italian surrender, the Luftwaffe used the Re.2002 against the French resistance. Finally, the Co-Belligerent Air Force, fighting alongside the Allies in Italy, used 40 Re.2002s for ground attack missions in support of partisans in northern Italy but mainly in the Balkan, just to avoid Italians still fighting alongside with 3rd Reich and Mussolini.

The Italeri’s kit does not bear strong resemblance with the actual aircraft (fat wings, strange engine fairings, strange fairing on the fuselage behind the cockpit) or finesse of the parts (huge “rivets”), and the fit of some components is quite problematic (especially in the engine area and clear canopy).

However, there is no choice, the only alternative is the same model in the Tamiya’s box. Of course, there are beautiful resin aftermarket sets produced by Vector, thanks to which the model is much closer to the original and gets the higher level of detail, but my goal was different – I wanted to practice reconstitution of the overlapping panels – the characteristic technology used by Reggiane, but also Nakajima, PZL, Grumman … – how it came out, you may judge yourself.